Heart of Steel
by hey.aishiteru
Summary: Hitsugaya Toushiro is a perfect being, engineered by scientist Kurosaki Karin. Cold and flawless in every way, he's the ultimate killing tool. But despite all that, Karin finds herself on a downward spiral of falling in love with her own creation.
1. Creation

**Hey! Guess what? It's a HITSUKARIN fanfic!!! ^______^**

**My ultimate favorite pairing of all time!!! I really hope this pairing gets more fans, and maybe it'll even outnumber the amount of rabid HitsuHina fans (*yuck*)!! Woohoo!! Okay, that's enough exclamation points. But this pairing deserves all the hearts and exclamation points in the WHOLE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!  
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**Okay...so read on!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. If I did... :)**

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**Chapter One: Creation**

Karin gazed into the container, the eerie aquatic light from within reflecting in her inky gray eyes and staining everything else in the dim room a shady green hue. Four walls of glass contained a limp humanoid body, floating dreamlessly in the shimmering liquid within.

She pressed her fingers to the glass, inches away from the lifeless body on the other side.

"It's perfect." she breathed, creating clouds on the glass.

"Damn straight it is," muttered one of her coworkers in a lab coat. "We spent just about the past three years making the damn thing."

Karin whipped around, her collarbone-length hair flying over her shoulder. Fire seemed to spark from her dark gleaming eyes.

"Do not call it "damn"," she snapped, "and don't call it "thing"." She glared at the man dangerously, before turning back around.

"Sheesh," he mumbled. "Chill out, girl."

Karin seemed not to hear his words. Her eyes traced attentively over the body - every line and contour was in place. There were no imperfections, blemishes, or disfigurements: the faultless anatomy, perfectly structured frame, flawless muscles, unmarked skin.....and the face. The face had been a shock. She had not expected this face...it hadn't been in the original plans. Yet it had come into existence on its own, regardless of what the team had designed in the first place. Nevertheless...it was a pleasant surprise. It seemed fitting, anyway, that such an inhumanly perfect body deserved an equally matchless face.

She sighed. Three long years...1,095 days of working minutes off the clock, spending hours overtime, agonizing over delicate and impossibly precise procedures. Little by little, bit by bit, the project had progressed and the body had developed - emerging like a fledgling out of a granite-shelled egg. Cell by cell, muscle by muscle, piece by piece...and now, here was the entire body - whole and intact. Her fingers, tired and cramped from writing down pages of chemical diagrams and numbers, stroked the glass, longing to finally touch her completed project just on the other side.

She hadn't even seen it open its eyes yet.

She wondered what color the eyes were.

"Drain it," she commanded, relishing those words. Three years was a long time.

Several small holes opened up at the bottom of the container, and water slowly began to filter out. The water level sunk, bringing the floating body down with it. Karin watched with satisfaction, bouncing eagerly on her heels as the last dribbles of liquid rolled down the drains, leaving the body, wearing only dark shorts, lying at the bottom deceptively like a sleeping human.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, unable to keep in her happiness any longer. She dashed around the lab room, high-fiving and shaking her coworkers, before finally dashing back to in front of the container.

"Can we take it out now?" she asked, like a girl staring at a puppy in a cage.

"Um, we should send it to the recovery room first, Karin-san," a timid girl replied. "It needs time to adjust after living so long in suspended animation." Karin rolled her eyes and spun on her heel.

"_Fine_, Ururu. Take it away," she snapped impatiently. Two lab assistants grabbed ladders to climb to the top of the 6-foot container, and jumped in through the open top. They detached the tubes connecting the body to the base and gingerly lifted it out, like it was a porcelain doll.

"Be careful," Karin warned, as they made their way down the ladders. "If you break it, I'll break _you_, Jinta."

The redheaded guy grinned jokingly. "Calm down, Karin. We made it to be indestructible, remember?"

She didn't answer, but watched like a hawk as they laid the body on a stretcher and carried it out of the lab.

"Well," commented one coworker. "This one goes in the scrapbook."

Karin grinned. "Yeah. _"November 2nd, 9:45 P.M., in Karakura Research Lab: First perfect android created."_ I'd show that to my grandkids."

"But I wouldn't call it an android," one person frowned. "That sounds so...inhuman. Like it's just some robot, or toy."

"I kinda feel like it's a human too," agreed another. "This project is our baby. It's better than any old...tool."

"Mmhm," the other replied, packing up her bag and preparing to leave. "You guys wanna go out and celebrate? Pop some sake? I think this day deserves some kind of ceremony, right?"

"A night club sounds like a good ceremony," giggled another ditzily.

"I'm coming. Karin-san? Karin," Ururu said softly to Karin, who was still standing and facing the now-empty, dark container. "Are you coming with us?"

"Come on," the ditzy one pleaded. "We totally deserve it. I know you don't drink and party much, but...we've worked _sooo _long and _way _too hard for this! Let's go!"

Karin turned around, and her eyes gleamed triumphantly as she grinned mischievously. "Damn straight."

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**...xXx...**

**Woohoo!!! My very first HitsuKarin chapter!!! Yes, I know it's not very long...but it's short and sweet. =) I'll try to make 'em longer in the future. kay? When more stuff will actually be going on...hahah.**

**Btw. Nov. 2nd is my birthday...just in case you were interested. xD  
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**Please review!!! Tell me what you think of this story plot and how I'm doing! ^_^  
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	2. Black and White

**Hey guys!**

**Thanks so much for reviewing!! I knew there were hardcore HitsuKarin fans out there! :)**

**Well, I made this chapter specially long (by my standards, haha) for the reviewers who requested that I write longer chapters. So right now, my eyes hurt, but that's the price for making you readers at least a little happy for the 7 minutes or so that it takes y'all to read this. **

**Don't forget to review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.**

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Chapter Two: Black and White

Karin slunk around the back alleyways, shrouded in shadow and quiet as a mouse. It was late, and the moon glowed overhead, a giant celestial orb. Raucous screeches and laughter could still be heard echoing behind her as she made her way back towards the center of town.

She had left early from the bar. She couldn't take all the drunkenness, the booziness, and the trashiness of blaring music, packed dance floors and acidic drinks that everyone seemed to guzzle down like water. Her friends were already way past tipsy, and probably wouldn't notice that their dark-haired friend had left half an hour into the game. She could only hope that they wouldn't be driving home in their wasted states.

Avoiding the main streets at night was smart - Karin knew this ever since the first nightclub had been established and ruined the peaceful evenings of Karakura. Intoxicated drivers would speed down the streets, burning up rubber and skidding dangerously close to innocent pedestrians. On the other hand, navigating dark alleyways at nearly midnight wasn't a brilliant idea either - but Karin could take care of herself. She knew how to handle a drunk guy, if ever she met one at night and no one was around to help: a kick to the gut, a punch to the face, and in a jiffy she'd be back on her way again. But against a solid, steel SUV with a drunk driver at the wheel - she had no chance.

So far, she hadn't encountered any molesters yet.

Karin reached the end of her narrow alley, where it met a main road that lead to the heart of town. Having no choice, she peered around the corner of a building to check for any surprise cars. Her clear face was illuminated by the pale moon hanging above, while the rest of her body remained in safe shadow. Judging that everything was okay, she stepped out and marched briskly onwards, clutching her purse to her chest.

At last, she reached her destination. She stopped at the front doors and looked up: 6 stories of dark windows, gaping like empty eyes. She counted six up and three to the left, and smiled contentedly. Her goal lay in that room.

Sneakily, Karin swiped her ID card and entered the building, trying to be as noiseless as possible. By now, almost everyone would have gone home to sleep. Anyone poking around the research labs near midnight would seem somewhat suspicious, so she anxiously rode the elevator up 6 flights, cursing it mentally each time it _ding_-ed.

At last...the doors slid open. Karin stole out and darted through the dim hallways to a familiar, nondescript door. After a moment's fumbling with jangling keys, she entered the room and closed the door with a careful click.

The room was awash with moonlight. Ethereal light flowed in through the window, casting black cutout shapes on ivory surfaces. All was quiet - the sounds of the city were blocked out. Paired with the silence of the scene, Karin felt like she'd stepped into a radiant, haunting dream. But the lovely picture wasn't satisfying to her. It still wasn't what she had come for.

What she had come for was lying in a bed.

It lay there, still as a wax figure, ashen and exquisite. Karin breathlessly walked over to its side, feeling like she was floating on air, but like there was no air in the room.

The moonlight washed over its faultless features, shining like dancing threads through its silvery hair.

The hair...Karin vaguely remembered, as she gazed, hypnotized, upon the body...had also been a surprise. Like the face. But she wasn't complaining.

To her, the face, the hair, the everything - everything was so perfect and immaculate, lying in a plain bed in a dull room - it was all Karin could see. Everything else blurred into a massless gray background.

To her, the body simply eclipsed everything around it, turning the surroundings into bland pastels.

To her, it was the sun in a dark night.

Her delicate fingers hovered over the face, longing to trace those features but not daring to touch. She felt like she would break it, or spoil it, like touching a mirror with greasy hands.

She settled for sleeping next to it.

Karin drew up a chair next to the bed and sat down, her upper body lying on the bed next to the other body's torso. In this position, she could easily glance up to see the face, and watch the gentle rise and fall of the body's chest as it breathed. Shifting her elbow to pillow her head, and hooking her feet around the chair legs to make sure she stayed in this position, Karin sighed in contentment and closed her eyes.

She could keep watch over her project now.

Her beautiful project, her work of art...

All she wanted was to be near it, night and day, every day.

Like her colleague had said - this was her baby.

But not in the literal sense.

A baby wouldn't bring out this sentimental, awestruck, almost worshipful side of Karin. She couldn't recall the last time she had felt so proud and obsessive over anything...but it wasn't a bad sensation.

As she curled up and fell asleep, she thought about how much better this was than getting wasted on some sake.

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The round, middle-aged nurse yawned as she waddled down the hallway. It was almost 6:30 in the morning - the time when most employees would be arriving to the research labs. She, on the other hand, should be going home right now, to doze in her bed with her two cats and a poodle. But she shrugged. It was her decision to take the night shift. She liked the peacefulness and quiet of having nobody else around - right before the masses of those nerdy, chatty scientists came to work.

She absentmindedly checked the locks to all the doors, made sure all the windows were shut, and turned off any lights or machines. Just as she was almost done with the tasks, heading towards the elevators at the end of the hall, something caught her eye.

"Hmm?" she murmured, backtracking slowly. She stopped in front of a door and peeked in through its small window. Squinting carefully, she spied something very white, and something very black. Cursing her old eyesight, she stealthily turned the handle of the door, and pushed it open by degrees. Poking her wrinkled face in, she saw what it was that had caught her eye.

A young woman, maybe around 25, was sitting in a chair and sleeping next to the body of a young man, about the same age, who was lying in a bed. Her hair was black - his was white. So that was what had caught her eye.

Being the romance buff that she was, the old nurse's heart grew all warm and fuzzy, and she sighed at the sight. _How cute...a girlfriend...keeping watch at the bedside of her boyfriend...what devotion! What loyalty! I wish I had someone like that...for me..._

She distractedly let go of the door latch, which then jumped back up to its original position, making a loud rattling noise. The old nurse flinched...but she wasn't the only thing that moved.

The boy's eyes flashed open, revealing sea-green irises. Like he'd been awake the whole time, he instantly sat upright, faster than she could react. He looked straight at her, and his voice was sharp and cold.

"Who are you?"

The nurse stuttered nervously. "Um, I'm sorry, I uh, just walked in by accident. I'll just, uh, be going-" she hastily ducked out the door and shut it with a snap.

The android sat in his bed, analyzing the room. He looked to his left, and saw the large glass window, with the rising sun casting its rays into the room. He wasn't blinded though, and continued gazing into the light. Somewhere, in the depths of his calculating brain, a thought said:

_Sun._

He looked down at himself, raised a hand, and noted how the sun created black copies of his fingers on the bed sheets. He thought,

_Shadow._

Then, he looked down and saw another body, its head lying near his waist. Its black hair sprawled out onto the white sheets like ink, and the morning rays illuminated its face. He examined how the sun created shadows of the nose and eyelashes on its skin. And another thought said,

_Girl._

As he analyzed the girl in silence, she began to stir and slowly opened her eyes. They were as dark as her hair. Blinking several times, she gradually looked up into the face of the android, who likewise looked down at her. And for the second time in two minutes, he asked,

"Who are you?"

Slowly, realization dawned in her eyes, as her ears took in the sound of his voice and her eyes took in the sight of his eyes. She gasped, and shot up from her chair like a rocket, backing away to the wall. But he could sense that she wasn't scared - more like shocked and excited.

"Y-y-you..." she stammered, eyes wide and face pale. Deep in the back of his mind, he wondered why nobody could talk to him in a complete sentence.

"You're awake!" she finally exclaimed.

"Who are you?" he repeated.

This time, she dashed forward and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him a little. "You're finally awake! I can't believe this! Oh, I've waited _so _long for you! Do you know how long?" she asked him, as she let go and sank down on the bed. He leaned back a little at the close proximity. "Three years! Three! Whole! Years! You know," she added, crossing her legs and staring at him, fascinated. "It's funny how you're only three years old, but you're already an adult."

Feeling the start of exasperation, he asked, "Who are you?"

Karin blinked. "Me? Who am I? Well," she grinned conspiratorially, and leaned in towards him. "I'm Kurosaki Karin. I'm the one who designed you. I've seen you develop from a tiny single cell into a couple of cells into a baby, a child, a teenager, and into what you are now. I've seen your whole life, Project Hitsugaya-101225. All three years of it."

Project Hitsugaya took a millisecond to process all this information. After all, his mind was designed that way. He could crunch a billion numbers within one second if he wanted to. He could speak 18 languages, recite the history of any major nation, and deconstruct an atomic bomb. If he wanted to.

"Then who am I?' he asked coldly, gazing warily at the girl in front of him.

She appeared confused as she frowned. "You? Well...you're our project. You're an android. My team created you, and...here you are." She hadn't been expecting this loss of identity when the android woke up, but that wasn't enough to deflate her energy. "Do you want a name, Project Hitsugaya? Since you look pretty much like a human. All humans need names."

He analyzed the prospect, and decided it was a good one. "Yes."

"Well...you decide it then. But keep Hitsugaya as your last name, okay?"

A thought flashed in his mind: _Okay: a slang term meaning being satisfactory or in adequate condition_. Looking back at the girl who was gazing so earnestly at him, he carefully opened his mouth and said,

"Okay."

Karin grinned and clapped her hands, as if he had performed some kind of seal trick. "You're perfect!" she exclaimed triumphantly, and ruffled his hair. A feeling of annoyance sparked off deep in his mind. She grabbed his arm and tried to tug him out of bed. "Come on! Let's go introduce you to the others!"

Feeling more and more bewildered with every passing moment, the android asked, "The others?"

"Yeah, my team," she explained impatiently. Grabbing some clothes from a cabinet, she tossed them at him. He caught them with cat-like reflexes. "Get dressed, please. You can't go see everyone in those shorts." Waving enthusiastically, she backed out the door with her eyes still lingering on him, and then shut it.

The android looked down at the clothes in his hands and at the closed door. It was early on his birthday - his day of awakening - and he already felt extremely lost.

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**...xXx...**

**So there you go!! I hope you liked/loved/adored it!! So, why don't you go leave me your opinion? *winkwink***

**Ciao~!  
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	3. Take Me Home!

**Happy Friday!!! I have a new episode of HitsuKarin drama for you guys! Hope you enjoy it reading it! **

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**Chapter Three: The Start of a New Relationship **

"This is Takeshi," Karin rambled on, pointing at a mousy lab assistant who waved at Hitsugaya nervously, as if the android would eat him. "And this is Miura, Satsuki, Ururu, and lastly, Jinta."

"Nice to meet you," Ururu mumbled, while Jinta grinned boyishly.

"All right!" Karin exhaled, after ten minutes of introducing her coworkers. She turned around to face Hitsugaya, hands on her hips. "Now that they all know you, and you know them, it's time to show you to our boss."

Hitsugaya's mind boggled. Here he was, conscious for the first time in his life, and a parade of strangers was immediately being shoved into his face. He was beginning to regret waking up in the first place.

"Who is your boss?" Hitsugaya asked calmly. He hoped it was somebody who talked fast, walked fast, and would go away fast. This whole episode was turning into a nightmare.

Karin smiled mischievously. "It's a secret. I've only seen him once before. That's why we're not actually going to show you to him in person. You're gonna meet his representative."

Hitsugaya mentally sighed in exhaustion. Humans and their peculiar habits. He couldn't even begin to comprehend them.

"'Kay, let's go!" Karin tugged on his arm, and they exited the laboratory to hop on a nearby elevator. As soon as the elevator doors slid shut, Karin let go of him to stand on the far side of the elevator, studying him from head to toe like he was a trophy. Hitsugaya stood like a stone statue, staring blankly back at her.

"How do you feel?" Karin asked bluntly, while pressing a button.

"I feel fine." Hitsugaya replied stoically.

"Mmhm. Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Well, you better be. The boss won't accept a tired old thing like you. He'll think the whole project was a waste of three years."

"I'm not tired, or old." Hitsugaya stated coldly with a chilling look, but Karin seemed unaffected.

"I know. I was being sarcastic." she sighed impatiently. "Geez...I should have thought of implanting a sense of humor into you."

Hitsugaya frowned. _Humans use sarcasm...for humor?_

"It was a joke. You know, to be funny." Karin went on. "Anyways, even if you don't look bad, your clothes need some work. Here, don't move." She crossed the space between them and started tugging sharply on his shirt, straightening out the wrinkles. Hitsugaya almost jumped, startled at her sudden action.

"Not used to human contact, eh?" Karin glanced up at him, refolding his collar. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it."

She didn't miss a thing. Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes.

"I'm not looking too great either," she abandoned his outfit and examined herself in the mirrors, combing through her dark hair and slapping dust off of her pants. "Oh well. The boss will have to deal. At any rate," she looked back at him cheerfully. "You obviously look way more attractive than me. We designed you so that you won't age, you know. And your body is engineered to never run out of energy, so you don't get tired and worn-down."

Hitsugaya blinked. That was interesting. A body that never aged, or became exhausted? What other abilities was he capable of? He was interested to find out.

The doors slid open, and Karin marched out. As he began to follow her, Hitsugaya caught a glimpse of himself in the mirrors.

It was the first time he had gotten a good look at himself. He saw a tall, thin body with perfect, lean proportions. He saw a sharp, angled face and white hair, and sea-green eyes that stared with cold, strange intensity at everyone and everything. His first impression was that he was seeing someone whose overall aura was not warm, friendly, or welcoming. Rather, he saw a person that was frosty and distant from the rest of the world - unapproachable. Like a wall of ice. Like a steel machine. Like an alien.

He paused, staring at the several images of himself reflected in the three mirrors, until Karin called him and he departed.

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"That shade of green doesn't look too good on you," Karin commented, as they headed down the hallway. "I should've given you a different one. Well, I suppose it matches your eyes...But you should never match your shirt to your eyes. That's the last thing Yuzu taught me before I left for college."

"Yuzu?" Hitsugaya asked, for the sake of conversation. He was beginning to notice how much humans chattered about mindless topics.

"My little sister," she explained. "She's training to be a nurse right now, with my older brother Ichigo. He's a doctor."

"I see." Hitsugaya replied neutrally.

Karin glanced at him amusedly. "I bet you wish you had siblings, right?"

Hitsugaya stared straight ahead. "I do not miss what I never had."

He was surprised when she started chuckling. "Did I say something odd?"

"No, it's...it's just that you talk like a textbook." Karin replied, smiling. "You'll need some more work - oh, here comes Gin." She paused for a fraction of a second before resuming her pace. Hitsugaya noticed that her eyes had narrowed a tiny bit. "Be careful. He's wily. Fox-like."

"Gin?"

"He's the boss's rep."

Hitsugaya focused on the tall, abnormally thin, silver-haired man walking towards them. His eyes were slanted shut, and his mouth was carved into a permanent grin. Hitsugaya could see why Karin suddenly felt tense. The man looked like a literal fox, hungry for prey.

"Hey there, kids," Gin called out, in a friendly voice. He pulled out his long arm from his pocket to wave at them.

Karin stopped and replied warily, "Good morning, Gin."

"Is it still morning?" he scratched his head lazily. "Thought it would've been lunchtime by now. I'm starving. Aren't you?" he asked, pulling his grin even wider. If Hitsugaya had known what a jack-o-lantern was, he would have seen the resemblance between it and Gin's smile.

"I'm fine." Karin said stiffly. She seized Hitsugaya's arm, pulling him to her side. "This is our completed project, Hitsugaya. He just woke up about half an hour ago. The boss would want to know about this as soon as possible."

Gin turned his head to face Hitsugaya, thought his eyes stayed shut. "Ah, so this is the guy. Kinda scrawny, eh?"

Hitsugaya's brain sparked into action. _Scrawny: exceptionally thin and meager in body or size. _Upon realizing the meaning, he bristled at the insult and opened his mouth, but Karin answered for him.

"If by scrawny you mean able to lift 150 pounds with each arm and run 50 kilometers in one day, with each limb built in with carbon nanotube artificial muscles, then yes - you would be right." She replied in a calm, contained voice, but Hitsugaya noticed her eyes burning with resentment. At the same time, he was stunned to hear her words. Was he really that strong? That amazing? He didn't even know the limits of his capabilities yet - just that they were far beyond the reach of normal humans.

"S'that so?" Gin said, sounding falsely apologetic. "Scary...I wouldn't have guessed that so much power was packed into a skinny kid like you. But you scientists did a good job. Congrats." He slid his hands back into his pockets. "The boss 'n me...we were beginning to wonder what the heck you guys were doing down in the labs. But I guess three years of waiting is worth it."

Karin wasn't just angry anymore, she was furious. Her fists shook as she replied, "Thank you. Please report our news to the boss."

"Will do. Oh, and the big guy wanted me to tell you guys somethin'." Gin leaned in, as if to tell them a secret. "It's a real shocker. I was considering not telling you guys after I first heard it."

Karin glared at him. "What is it?"

"Well...the boss said that whenever the robot wakes up-"

"Android." Karin muttered.

"-he's gonna need some...what do you call it..._acclimating_ to the big, wide world. And being stuck in a lab all day, with you scientists studying his reactions and reflexes and whatnot, is not gonna help him anyhow. So the boss says."

"So?"

"So, Karin-chan, the boss wants his robot to be nice and ready for him to use as soon as possible. And a bot that hasn't taken a single step into the great outdoors is not a very experienced bot, wouldn't you agree?"

"What are you trying to get at, Gin?" Karin snapped. "Do you want us to send him on a camping trip? Or maybe abandon him on a mountain and see how he surives?"

"No, no, no, you're taking it too literally." Gin leaned in even closer, till their faces were mere inches apart, but Karin stood her ground. "Listen. The boss wants this tool to be ready ASAP. Which means, you're gonna have to cram as much experience into it as you can. Street smarts, social skills, people-watching...the like. So when the time comes for him to do his job-" Gin tilted his heads towards Hitsugaya, and grinned slyly. "-he can do it perfectly. No errors."

"Just what the hell do you want me to do?" Karin demanded.

Gin straightened back up, and smiled down at her. "Take him home."

Karin was stunned into silence. Hitsugaya's eyes widened in shock. Gin's eyes seemed to slant even higher in satisfaction at their reactions, and he chuckled.

"You can teach him, Karin-chan. Be his mentor. Half the time with you, half the time in the lab. That way, he's gonna learn lots of things a hella lot faster. And that's just what the boss wants. After all, every child needs a mother's guiding touch."

"T-t-take him home?" Karin exploded, red flushing into her face. "I can't do that! Experiments belong in the lab, where they can be studied. I can't take so much responsibility for such an important project like him!" she jabbed her finger at Hitsugaya, poking him in the chest. "I can easily screw up three whole years of intensive research and design! You can't expect me to do this!"

"Come on. If you could engineer a whole body outta nothing, then teaching the kid is gonna be a piece of cake." Gin said teasingly.

"You have no idea." Karin stated flatly. "I won't take the risk."

"You're gonna take him home." Gin finalized, turning around to walk away languidly. He looked back over his shoulder and said cheerfully, "But no fooling around!"

Outraged and blustering, Karin stared after him as he departed. Hitsugaya remained mute for a few moments, letting her curse Gin freely and kick the walls until she calmed down.

"Looks like I have to take care of you," Karin seethed, crossing her arms and stalking away.

"I can take care of myself." Hitsugaya replied coolly. He didn't appreciate being treated like a child dumped on an unwilling babysitter.

Karin whirled around, her face pink. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. It's just...I don't have the tiniest idea of where to start. I suck at teaching. I don't even know what to teach you." She ran her fingers through her hair and exhaled tiredly, staring at her shoes.

Hitsugaya analyzed her sheepish expression, and felt a grain of pity. "Teach me what Gin said. Street smarts, social skills, and people-watching." He advised.

Karin eyed him thoughtfully. "We made you super smart, so I guess you'll pick up fast." She sighed again and slumped against the wall. Hitsugaya walked over and leaned on the wall next to her. Together, they remained in bitter, contemplative silence for a few minutes.

"Karin?" he finally asked.

"Yeah?" she looked up at him wearily.

"What is...fooling around?"

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**...xXx...**

**Huzzah! Chapter 3 done! I hope you guys enjoyed it, even if it's a tad shorter than the 2nd chappie. *sigh* I tried so hard to write more too...Oh well. Please leave me a review about this looovely episode. =]  
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	4. Puddles

**Hey y'all!!! My spring break starts today! So I might have more time to do more uploads =] Keep on reading! I had fun with this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. sadly**

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**CHAPTER FOUR: Puddles  
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_Plunk._

_Plunk._

_Plunk._

Hitsugaya watched the white sugar cubes fall, one by one, into the brown steaming liquid and slowly become submerged. A silver spoon sank into the mixture and began whirling the contests around rapidly, creating a miniature whirlpool. Tiny bubbles rose to the surface and popped, releasing steam into the air.

"Karin?"

"Yeah?" Karin looked up from her mug.

"What are you doing?" Hitsugaya asked, watching from across the round table. They were sitting in a small café near the window, surrounded by chatting people and the aroma of many different drinks.

"I'm mixing my coffee." Karin replied, picking up a pitcher of cream and pouring it. "You know coffee, right? Some kind of American drink thing..."

Hitsugaya watched her actions like a hawk. "Actually, it's Ethiopian." He stated.

Karin's head snapped up. "What?" she said disbelievingly.

"Coffee beans were first brewed in Ethiopia, and then spread to the Middle East and Europe. The Americas were the last places it arrived in." Hitsugaya recited calmly. Karin still gaped at him with wide eyes.

"No, that's not what I meant." She finally said, setting down her spoon. "I was just surprised...I guess I didn't know you were so..._smart_. It's kinda scary." She grinned sheepishly, fiddling with a napkin.

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"Well, I like to add a lot of sugar and cream," Karin went on, wrapping her hands around the mug. "It all depends on personal preference. Some people drink it black. Some people don't even drink coffee." She took a sip, watching him out of the corner of his eyes.

_He's smart...but he's not familiar with how the world works. Or how people work._

"Want to try?" she offered him the mug. Hitsugaya looked slightly shocked.

"Try?" he repeated.

"Yeah. See if you like it." Karin pushed the mug towards him, and he picked it up. Sniffing cautiously, he took a careful sip, and set it back down.

"How is it?" Karin pressed.

"It's very sweet." Hitsugaya said flatly, and pushed the drink back towards her. She sighed.

"Yeah..." she shrugged. "I don't normally like sweet things. But coffee is an exception. Drinking it black is too bitter, and mostly workaholics drink it that way."

"Workaholics?"

"People who work too much." She replied automatically. "Obsessive achievers. You could say I was a workaholic when my team was creating you."

Hitsugaya nodded, and looked out the window, watching passerby on the street. It was raining, and the streets and sidewalks had turned a glossy gray to match the sky. People hurried past, calling taxis and clutching umbrellas.

Karin sighed again and slumped in her seat. This was awkward. This was exhausting. This was pointless.

_Gin tells me to teach him stuff...but what do I teach him?_

_I take him to a café, and so far...he's learned nothing. Except that I like my coffee with unnatural amounts of sugar and cream._

_This is going nowhere._

She absentmindedly studied his face, enthralled as always by the symmetry of the features. The gloomy light coming in from the windows only highlighted their perfection. Karin felt like an old, washed-out piece of rag in comparison. Shaking her head, she got up and pulled an umbrella out of her bag.

"Come on, Hitsugaya." She said wearily. "Let's go."

"You haven't finished your coffee." He pointed out.

"That's okay. I'll pay for it anyways," she left some money on the table and headed for the exit. Hitsugaya followed obediently.

Ducking under the awning outside, Karin fumbled with her uncooperative umbrella while Hitsugaya stood nearby. Finally getting it to open, she raised it overhead and dashed out, avoiding puddles. She hated the rain. Hitsugaya tailed her like a shadow as they crossed the soggy street, weaving around honking cars stuck in traffic.

"Damn rain," Karin muttered as a drop landed in her eye. She reached up to scrub it away, pausing in the middle of the sidewalk. As she blinked several times, a warm hand secured itself over hers, and pried her fingers off the umbrella handle, taking it away from her.

"What -" Karin started, looking up, and saw that Hitsugaya was now holding the umbrella above both of them. "What was that for?" she asked curiously.

Hitsugaya began walking, and she followed. "I see that most of the men carry umbrellas for the women." He stated simply, looking straight ahead. Glancing around confusedly, Karin realized that he had noted how all the couples under umbrellas had the male person holding it up.

_Wow...in the time it took us the cross the street, he'd already picked up something..._she mused as they navigated the sidewalk.

"Where are we going, Karin?" Hitsugaya asked, pausing under another store awning, waiting for directions.

"Uhh..." Karin hugged herself for warmth to ward off the chill. "It's too early to go home...and it's not lunchtime yet...we still have a few hours to kill."

Hitsugaya frowned. "A few hours...to kill?"

"It's a figure of speech," Karin said hastily. "I meant that we still have some time to do things...well..." she pondered. What could they do? Something educational for him...a taste of the real world...

"Hey!" she exclaimed. "I have an idea!"

"What is it?"

"Do you wanna go watch a movie?" she smiled slyly up at him.

Hitsugaya appeared confused. "As in...a film?"

"Yeah, yeah, a film. A moving picture. Whatever. Let's go!" she took him by the arm and dragged him down a separate street, looking around for a taxi.

Hitsugaya's mind whirled as she marched on, latched onto his arm. _She seems to have extreme mood swings...and gets easily excited. _He noted passively. _I wonder if all humans act this way._

"Taxi!" Karin shouted, waving her free arm enthusiastically.

"What are you doing?" Hitsugaya asked for the second time, perplexed by her odd behavior.

"Hailing a taxi. You have to call "taxi" and wave your arm, until a taxi comes and stops for you." Karin explained. After a few more tries, a cab pulled up in front of them. Karin pulled the door open and jumped in, followed by Hitsugaya.

"Yamanaka Theater, please," Karin told the driver, and settled back in her seat, combing her fingers through her damp hair. "The driver will take us there for a fee," she muttered to Hitsugaya in a low voice. He nodded.

"That'll be 1000 yen," the driver stated, after the ride had ended. Karin passed him some bills through the plastic partition, and then she and Hitsugaya exited. They found themselves at the door of a large building with many titles printed across a board on the front.

"Let's see," Karin mused, scanning over the movie names as Hitsugaya reopened the umbrella and held it over them. "We don't need to see a sports movie...no doubt you can outperform any of the actors...or a mystery film...you could solve it right away. I don't think you'll be scared by a horror movie either..."

Hitsugaya waited patiently as she hemmed and hawed for the next minute. "I got it." She finally said. "Let's go." And they entered the theater.

* * *

_An hour and a half later..._

_

* * *

_"That was a piece of crap," Karin stated dismissively, as they both exited the building. "A waste of my money. And my time."

"It was your choice in the first place," Hitsugaya mentioned mildly, observing their surroundings. It has stopped raining by then, but the ground was still wet.

"Yeah, but I chose it for your educational purpose," Karin fumed, crossing her arms. "There was nothing you could learn from that airheaded, overdramatic story plot."

Hitsugaya said nothing. Karin continued to rant about the movie as they walked down the street, heading towards the center of town.

"And then, the ending was so incredibly unrealistic, I don't even know why - oh, thanks," she said, as he grabbed her arm to steer her out of the way of a big puddle. "I don't even know why they bothered to produce it. I mean, why waste all that effort? Maybe a romantic comedy wasn't the best idea after all," she reflected. "You see, that's why I don't like to watch those kinds of movies. Those are for Yuzu."

"Are you normally like this all the time?" Hitsugaya asked mildly, as she paused for breath.

Karin laughed. "Only when the movie's really bad."

"It wasn't that terrible. You are just very critical." Hitsugaya commented placidly.

She sighed. "Yeah, I am. Thanks for being a good listener though."

"It was nothing," he replied. She glanced up at him, surprised.

"So you actually learned some dialogue from the movie, eh?" she chuckled. "Some "real people" talk. Good job."

"There were still many vocabulary terms that I wasn't familiar with though." He said. "I didn't know what 'hit the slots' meant."

"It means to gamble," Karin clarified. "With slot machines."

"And what about 'bailed out on me'?"

"That means that somebody didn't, um, fulfill their promise. Something a bad friend would do."

"And 'shoplifting'?"

"Stealing things from a store."

For the next few minutes, Hitsugaya continued to interrogate Karin with a barrage of slang terms, as they wandered aimlessly around the streets. Karin vaguely realized that she was enjoying herself, explaining these things to an android who was both smarter than a supercomputer and dumber than a rock.

"And lastly, when the female protagonist refused to agree to a one-night stand...?" Hitsugaya asked.

Karin sighed. "A one-night stand is...well...when a guy and a girl get together for one night -"

"Get together?"

Karin felt herself blush. "Like...sex?"

"Sex?"

"Sexual intercourse..." Karin prompted.

"_The act of heterosexual procreation between humans involving-" _

"I know what it means," she interrupted hastily, feeling her face heat up like a lamp. "Basically, it's when a guy and a girl have sex for one night...and one night only...and the next day there are no strings attached."

"No strings-"

"No expected relationship to come out of that one night." Karin said in a rush. "A fling. No meaningful purpose whatsoever." She looked off to the side, willing her face to return to its natural color.

"Ah," Hitsugaya replied, as if she'd just told him how electricity works. _Why does she seem so upset? Is she embarrassed, or uncomfortable with these topics? Humans are a mystery..._

"You really are an amateur," Karin muttered, chuckling softly. "So many things are new to you...you're like an amateur human." She turned to face him and beamed, an uncharacteristic action. "Toushirou. That should be your name. Amateur."

Hitsugaya felt the corners of his mouth turn up. Her smile was contagious. "Toushirou?" he repeated, trying it out for size.

"Yeah. I like the sound of it." She glanced up at the murky sky as a few drops landed on her nose.

"It's drizzling again," she mumbled, but her spirits didn't seem as dampened as before. She took the umbrella from his hands and opened it, lightly skipping down the empty sidewalk and dodging puddles, carefree like a leaf on the wind.

Hitsugaya felt a smile curl across his face. He realized then that he had forgotten to ask her the meaning of one phrase he'd heard in the movie - "dancing in the rain".

He watched her skip ahead - twirling like an animated, lively child.

It was pretty self-explanatory.

* * *

**...xXx...**

**Aww...I liked it. I hope you guys liked it too. I was worried that maybe I was making the HitsuKarin relationship thing too obvious and too soon...but it's already the 4th chapter. And this fic IS under the heading of Romance. haha...**

**BTW. Toushirou is a homonym for "amateur" in Japanese. I read that somewhere, and it seemed to fit this story =]  
**

**One of my beloved reviewers asked me if I could incorporate Hyorinmaru into this story...I'll try. I have an idea. *wink***

**Don't forget to review please!!  
**


	5. The Giggles

**DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG it's been awhile!!!!! I'm sorry guys!! I guess I went on one of those writer breaks...hiatus or whatever.**

**Yeah. and also all those good movies out there kinda distracted me too. Heheh. (UP. GO SEE IT NOW.)**

**So yeah. I'm sorry again. *sadface* Hopefully you all haven't lost interest...**

**And thanks to Moon of Jupiter for correcting my mistake about toshirou's name. gracias =]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.**

**

* * *

**

"Hey, redhead."

"Yes, Kurosaki-san?"

"Coffee. Decaf, extra sugar, no whip cream."

"Yes, Kurosaki-san."

"Get to it."

Karin yawned, stretching back in her chair until it was dangerously close to tipping over. She stared with glazed eyes out of the giant panel of glass in front of her, which overlooked a beautifully blue Olympic-size pool and a giant scoreboard hanging on the opposite wall. Currently, the pool was empty, except for a particular white-haired boy on his 52nd lap of freestyle.

"Man, will he ever give up?" she muttered to herself, running her fingers through her inky hair before collapsing onto the desk before her. _I know how amazing you are. We all do. So what's with this testing? Just stop._

"You look tired, Karin-chan." an assistant chirped brightly as she walked in with a cup of tea.

"No shit." Karin growled halfhearted, not bothering to lift up her head. "You'd be tired too if you'd already been through two hours of watching this kid do the freakin' butterfly. "

"Mmm," the assistant murmured sympathetically, while her eyes trailed the swimming body below with obvious admiration. "Well, I guess I wouldn't mind looking at him all day, don't you think?"

Karin scoffed ungracefully. Yeah, he had a nice- no, great body, she could admit that. But when watching that body for the only free Saturday she had for the entire month took precedence over the tickets to a soccer match she and Ichigo had booked since she received the paycheck from her first job (aka selling lemonade), Karin Kurosaki did not feel like a happy camper.

In fact, she was pissed.

Very pissed.

"Great endurace too," the assistant murmured again, forgetting all about her tea. "You say he hasn't stopped for two hours?"

Karin let out a sound that was half-snarl, half-wail of anguish. "I'm going to kill Gin. Kill him, and his cat, and everything else important to him." she glared at the mass of papers on her desk. "_"Just test his abilities a lil bit, Karin-chan. How about taking him to the pool? We wanna make sure he's in top condition, eh? Besides, it'll be like bonding time, Karin-chan. Have fun!"_" she mimicked in a high, squeaky voice that definitely did not belong to Gin.

"Ooh, look, he stopped!" the assistant giggled, almost splashing her tea on herself in excitement. "He got out. What's he doing?"

_"What?_" Karin snapped, outraged, exploding from her chair. "Who said he could stop? I did not say he could stop. That brat-"

_"_Well, Karin, you were just complaining about how-"

_"_Shut up. Where's my coffee?"

At that moment, redhead-boy trotted in, holding a steaming mug. "Here you go, Karin-san," he bowed obediently.

Karin spared him a "Thanks" before taking a long sip..which turned out to be a very short one. She choked violently, coughing out between gasps, "What the hell did you put in this? Powdered donuts?"

"Well, you did say extra-"

"Which means a couple...-cough-...like three or four...-cough-...sugar cubes. Not the whole...-cough-...box," Karin wheezed. She set the mug down and threw off her jacket frustratedly. "I'm...-cough-...outta here. Gonna give that...-cough-...kid a piece of my mind." She marched off towards the door, a determined glint in her eyes.

"Are you okay, Karin?" The devil just-spoken-of suddenly appeared in the doorway, blocking her exit. Karin screeched to a halt in surprise.

"Toushirou!" she exclaimed, pausing to notice that he had thrown on a T-shirt over his swimming trunks and that his white hair was still damp. "How did you get here?"

He shrugged indifferently. "I figured it out."

She narrowed her eyes. Of course. Him and his genius brain.

"I decided to stop," he continued coolly. "I thought you were probably getting bored."

"Oh, you thought so, eh?" Karin replied acidly, crossing her arms. "Well-"

"Get your coat."

She blinked. "What?"

"Get your coat." Hitsugaya repeated, turning to leave. His aquamarine eyes locked with hers, and he smiled a little bit. Karin felt something on the inside twist and flip over. "We're going somewhere."

And with that, he left. leaving damp footprints. Assistant-girl sighed wistfully, and readhead-boy looked sadly down at his nonexistent abs. Karin gaped for a little while in shock, before recovering and feeling her face turn pink.

"Says who?" she muttered, grabbing her jacket.

* * *

The taxi ride was spent in silence, except for Karin occasionally clearing her throat to get rid of the taste of over-sugared coffee. Hitsugaya felt that the atmosphere was a little stiffer than necessary, but didn't mention it.

"We're here," he said, when the taxi stopped in front of a nondescript building.

"Where is "here"?" Karin asked a little peevishly as she climbed out.

"Here," Hitsugaya stated, and Karin thought she could detect a little satisfaction in his cool tone, "is where we pick up tickets."

"Tickets?" Karin repeated.

"Yes." The corner of his mouth quirked up the tiniest bit, and it suddenly all dawned on her.

"Oh no." she backed away, covering her mouth in shock. "Oh, no you didn't. You couldn't have."

"I heard you last night," Hitsugaya continued calmly, paying the driver. "On the phone with your brother. I'm sorry about the inconvinience I created for you today so I knew I had to pay it back somehow-"

"By what?! By getting tickets? The match is already over by now!" Karin cried, knowing that she was overreacting. _Calm down, Karin. He doesn't deserve this. He was only trying to help, in his weird, little, twisted android way. _

"Let me explain," he said patiently, but she bulldozed on.

"How could you? Honestly, I don't know whether to be touched or insanely mad right now. I mean, it's sweet of you, and it's really not your fault. It's actually all Gin's fault, but I can't exactly take it out on him. Plus, I was just being stupid since it's not that much of an inconvinience, I just complain too much-"

"And you talk too much." Hitsugaya interrupted smoothly. He leveled her with a stare. "I know the game is over by now."

"Then why?!" Karin exclaimed, utterly confused. _Why? Why? Why?!_

"Your brother took his friend to that match, since you couldn't attend. So," here Hitsugaya paused, for dramatic effect. "I got us tickets to a soccer match later tonight. And-" another pause. "-they are front-row seats."

If a lifeless statue of Karin had been made, it would have resembled what she looked like now. She could only stare helplessly up at him, speechless and shocked beyond her wits. All brain activity stopped. Her heart barely kept from flatlining.

"You can thank me later," Hitsugaya said wryly, turning to go enter the building.

* * *

_One thrilling soccer match later..._

_

* * *

_

"I didn't know you were a soccer fan, Karin." Hitsugaya commented as they walked away from the stadium.

"Yeah. I always have been." she replied, cheeks pink from the exciting game and chilly night air. "I used to play soccer, you know."

Hitsugaya turned to glance at her. She did have the lean legs of a runner, and her movements were always coordinated - like a true athlete. Of course, he could also tell from her expressions that she used to be a tomboy. If he ever heard a giggle out of her, it'd probably be a sign that his brain was going haywire.

"Toushirou." Karin stopped in her tracks, her face uncharacteristically serious. She looked up at the darkening sky, and the few stars that were beginning to pop out.

"What?"

She turned herself so that she was squarely facing him, but she stared at her shoes. "Well, that was a great game." she mumbled quietly, shuffling her feet in the grass.

He raised an eyebrow. _What's up with her?_

"And, well, it was a lot more fun than, say, watching you swim for the rest of the night into tomorrow."

The other eyebrow came up.

"And although I miss spending time with Ichi-nii, it was also...refreshing...to notspend time with him."

Both eyebrows scrunched together in the middle. _I think she has a fever or something._

"Are you sick?" he asked, reaching up to feel her forehead.

And then she giggled.

That was it. Hitsugaya knew for sure. He was hallucinating.

"I'm not making very much sense, am I?" Karin laughed nervously, tucking hair behind her ears.

Hitsugaya was now completely sure that his brain had short-circuited. Karin Kurosaki never questioned herself.

"What I meant was, it was great to watch a match with someone other than Ichigo." Karin said timidly, her dark eyes darting everywhere except Hitsugaya's face.

He was too busy trying to figure out what had prompted his sudden spiral into insanity.

"Hitsugaya? Are you...okay?" Karin glanced up at him, fidgeting with anxiety.

_No, I'm not okay. I am the opposite of okay. My indestructible android brain has turned into a pile of mush._

"I'm just not sure how to phrase this..."

_And I don't even know why. Maybe too much time in the pool?_

"I hope I don't sound like a lunatic right now..."

_No, that's alright. It's my mind that's derailed and it's making you sound the way you are._

"Hey!"

SMACK.

The cold, refreshing impact brought Hitsugaya to his senses. His hand reached up to touch the pink, stinging mark on his face, and he took a deep breath, feeling new air rush into his lungs and clear out his mind. Thank goodness. He shook his head briefly. "I'm sorry, what?"

Karin sighed exasperatedly, scowling. "When a girl is trying to say thank you for the great night she had, you're supposed to look attentive and then say it was nothing! Don't just space out like that. Haven't I taught you anything? Idiot android..."

He grinned in relief. The real Karin was back. Alive and punching.

"You're welcome." He replied, fingering the sore spot on his cheek.

Karin rolled her eyes. "Last time I try to thank you for something. Come on, let's go." She spun on her heel and marched away, muttering about awkward robots and their lack of social skills.

Before she got too far, Hitsugaya called out. "Karin!"

She stopped. "What."

He paused, waited till she turned around, their eyes met, and then put on a smile. "It was nothing."

She looked momentarily surprised, but then smiled back. Fast, fleeting.

"You catch on quick," she laughed, and kept walking.

Thank god she didn't giggle.

* * *

**...xXx...**

**Ahhh this took quite a while to type up...does it kinda make up for my long absence? Maybe? =]**

**AND WHAT A SWEET COUPLE HITSUGAYA AND KARIN MAKE. they are so made for each other. Like cookies and milk. Or Nutella and toast. Haha.**

**Please review!!! I am sorry for being gone so long!! =(  
**


	6. Steel

**HEYYYYY GUYS!!!**

**Yes, I know I've been gone a long time again...but I actually have an excuse this time. I was outta the country!! With little internet access too. So yeah. No time for uploads.**

**But I'm still sorry, and I know I oughta be more consistent if I want people to keep reading this story. But I'm not gonna give up on it!! Even if I'm gone for weeks and weeks....please stick with me. I'll most likely have more time to upload now that it's summer...**

**So read on! Thank you!!**

**Disclaimer: no own bleach  
**

* * *

**Chapter Six ~ Steel**

It was a dark and stormy night.

Karin hated it.

Here she was, all holed up in her office working overtime _again_, with no company except for that Spock-like android and the redhead who brought her cup after cup of over-sugared coffee to keep her conscious.

She'd much rather be somewhere else. Say, a soccer field. The gym. Home. Or, really, anywhere else on the freakin' planet.

"Grrrrr…" she growled viciously, as her pencil tip snapped. She flung it into the wastebasket by her feet. "I can't stand this! Why does Gin hate me so much?"

Hitsugaya looked up. He'd been working on one of those tangled-metal-pieces puzzles, and had been solving it and messing it back up for the past half hour. Patiently, quietly, with no complaints.

"And _you!_" Karin's eyes flared, and she pointed at him accusingly. "You, you, you…"

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked in a bored voice.

"You!" she snapped angrily, fishing for words. "You…are just so…calm! How do you do it? Why are you so freakishly calm?!"

"I don't know. You made me." Hitsugaya replied, looking back at the puzzle.

Karin scoffed. "Oh, so now you develop a sense of humor. I don't remember implanting sarcasm into you. So where did it come from? Hmm?"

He looked up again, and those icy aquamarine eyes locked onto Karin's. They showed no hint of resentment, no flash of anger, or sign of disdain. They simply looked at her. Calm, cool, assuring. And Karin felt her heated frustration begin to dampen down, like a dying fire. A wave of chilly shame washed over her.

"Ohhh great," she sighed, settling back in her chair wearily. "I've gone and lost my nasty temper again. Remind me to stop doing that."

"I will," Hitsugaya said mildly.

"Fat chance," she replied, doodling on some papers. "No matter how many times you tell me, I'll lose it again pretty soon."

"Having a temper is better than having no temper." He stated philosophically.

"Like you?" Karin said wistfully, crunching up a sheet of paper.

There was a pause. Hitsugaya put the puzzle down.

"Emotions belong to humans, not androids." He replied, and stood up to go look out the window.

Rain was lashing outside, and lightning lit up the sky every so often. Thunder rattled the glass panes. Karin watched him for a few moments – standing by the window, an almost melancholy look settled into his features. It sparked a protective feeling inside her, a desire to cheer him up and crack a smile across that face. But what could she do? Nothing. She couldn't cheer anybody up. With this temper of hers, she could only tick them off or bring them down. Only people who knew to look past her biting remarks and sarcastic comments – Ichigo, Yuzu, her dad – could stand to be around her for long periods of time. She just wasn't built to be a happy-go-lucky person.

Sighing again, she returned to her work, reading pages of statistics and reviews. All of it concerned the development and research on that android standing across the room. But none of it could help her learn enough about him to be his friend.

A good long time passed between them in silence, and Karin miserably worked at her table while Hitsugaya stared at the unceasing rain outside. Finally, she encountered a problem that she couldn't figure out.

"Toushirou," she called tiredly, "what's the atomic mass of potassium?"

"39.0983 amu." He replied, glancing back at her.

"Thanks," she said, scribbling it down and yawning. "Oh, and d'you know its melting point?"

"Do you want it in Celsius, Fahrenheit, or Kelvin?"

Karin smiled wryly down at her desk. "Celsius."

"63.65 degrees."

"Okay…thanks." She continued writing, propping her head up to keep from falling asleep. Suddenly, she felt a presence at her elbow. She looked up and saw Hitsugaya, gazing over her shoulder at the mass of papers on the desk.

"Do you want help with that?" he asked, pulling a diagram towards him.

"No," she said quickly. "No, it's my responsibility. I can do it."

"I know you can do it," Hitsugaya stated with a bit of exasperation. "But you look tired and I have nothing better to do."

Karin blinked her exhausted eyes. "You shouldn't be doing my work. If Gin found out…"

"He won't." Hitsugaya stated firmly. Sometimes, humans worried too much about the silliest things. Scratch that. Make that _all _the time.

Karin hesitated. "You sure?"

He pointed at the sofa in the corner. "Go sleep. I'll take care of this."

Karin flashed a grateful smile up at him. "Thanks. That's really…nice of you."

He shrugged. "You probably implanted niceness into me."

She laughed and went to sit on the sofa. Within minutes, she was out cold and Hitsugaya began to work through the papers, speedily finishing each sheet neatly and efficiently. To be honest, it was pretty much as boring as the metal puzzle had been. But he didn't complain. Doing a nice deed didn't make him all warm and fuzzy inside, but it did add a rewarding sense of accomplishment…sort of.

Within the next hour, the mountain of incomplete work in the "in" tray had vanished to a neat, clean tower of paper in the "out" tray. Hitsugaya leaned back in the chair, tapping his fingers absentmindedly. Now what? He picked up a pen and twirled it. Maybe he could doodle. He'd never tried it before.

He began drawing on a blank sheet – swift, sure strokes with the pen, knowing exactly where he was going. It was more absorbing than the puzzle or paperwork, but not much could cure a genius android of boredom. Still, he found that he was painstakingly careful about the doodling, making sure that what he pictured in his mind turned out the same on paper.

When he finished, he sat back and admired his work. Well, not bad, considering it was his first time doodling. He dropped it in the wastebasket and put the pen away. No sentimentality for him. He wasn't about to carry it around in his pocket or anything.

The clock struck eleven, and Hitsugaya listened to the tolls. The clock needed to be fixed, he noted, since the tunes sounded slightly off from one another. Sighing silently, he realized that he must be _really _bored, and sat forward, searching the desk for anything else to do. Androids didn't sleep, but he was beginning to resent that since it would take 8 hours away from the 24 he spent wide awake.

Suddenly, a timid knock came at the door.

"Come in," Hitsugaya called quietly, glancing towards Karin.

The door opened and redhead-boy tiptoed in. He paled once he saw Hitsugaya sitting at Karin's desk, and Karin curled up on the sofa.

"Uh, I'm sorry," he squeaked. "I-I-I didn't think that, uh, Karin-san would be, uh, not awake…well, here's a package…" he darted forward and placed a small box in front of Hitsugaya.

"What is it?" he asked, pulling it towards him.

"I-It's from the b-boss…" redhead-boy stuttered.

A rustling sound caught both their attention. Karin was stirring on the sofa, and she sat up, stifling a yawn. When she saw them, her eyes widened. "What are you doing here?" she asked the boy disorientedly. "I don't need any more coffee."

"Um, delivering a package, Karin-san." He bowed, and then quickly ran out. Karin slowly came over to stand by the desk.

"Well, why don't you open it," she said, rubbing her eyes.

Hitsugaya made short work of the tape and stickers, opened the lid, and removed the crumpled paper padding, revealing a –

A gun.

A glossy, steely gun. It was midnight-black and glinted in the faint light, feeling cold to the touch when Hitsugaya hesitantly reached out to take it from the box. It was solid, but not heavy, and fit his grip perfectly – neither too large or too small. The metal felt like ice to his skin, and was absolutely smooth, slick, deadly.

"Wow." Karin leaned in closer. "Nice toy."

"From the boss," Hitsugaya echoed, turning the revolver around in his hands. Karin's head jerked up.

"The boss?" she exclaimed incredulously, seizing the empty box and scrutinizing it. "Why would he give you a gun?"

"Target practice?" Hitsugaya offered half-jokingly, but he had no idea. He'd never held a gun before. Of course, he knew how to shoot it, and he was pretty sure he'd have perfect aim no matter what, but the gun seemed alien to him. It was a dangerous, menacing killing tool, right here in his hands. With it, he could blow holes in people, take lives like swatting flies on a hot summer day.

He wasn't sure what to feel about that.

Karin had a worried - almost scared - look on her face, and she took the gun from him, placing it back in its box and shutting the lid. "I'll talk to him about this," she murmured tensely. "For now…let's just put it away. Unless you want to name it and keep it under your pillow…?" she joked nervously.

Hitsugaya looked confused. "Name it?"

"Yeah, why not? Yuzu names her kitchen appliances and teddy bears," she replied, trying lamely to lift the atmosphere.

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow. "Somehow, I don't think Snowflake or Sparky is going to fit it too well." he said dryly.

She laughed. "Yeah, you're right. You'll need a glamorous name like Excalibur or something."

There was a pause, as Hitsugaya gazed at the closed box. "How about Hyourinmaru?" he suggested.

"Hyourinmaru?" Karin repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's the name of the manufacturer." He pointed at the label. "See? Hyourinmaru Firearms Company."

Karin squinted. "Oh. Well, okay. It's your gun. And I guess it sounds nice." She shrugged and walked off to the window. "I think the rain is slowing down. Maybe I can find a taxi now…"

Hitsugaya got up to grab their coats. "Let's go home."

"You said it." Karin huffed, marching to the exit. Halfway out the door, she paused. "Oh, and thanks a lot. For finishing my paperwork." She smiled in a slightly embarrassed way. "Don't let the others know about it, or I'll lose all my authority with them."

"I think that temper is all you need to keep them in line," Hitsugaya replied, turning off the lights.

Karin grinned. "Right. Well, thanks again."

"No problem," he replied, and waiting until she had turned around and was walking down the hall before glancing down at himself. His inner coat pocket bulged out a bit, right above his heart, but not too noticeably. He zipped it all the way up to the collar, feeling his blood pulsing quickly through his veins.

"Let's keep this a secret, Hyourinmaru." He said quietly, and set off after Karin.

* * *

**...xXx...**

**Woooo.....scary...**

**Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Who knows? I sure don't!! (jk) Well, please review!!! Tell me what YOU think :)  
**


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